


What Needs To Be Done

by Severina



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Community: tamingthemuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-02
Updated: 2012-06-02
Packaged: 2017-11-06 15:30:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/420413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A man oughta be able to look into the eyes of the man who's going to kill him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Needs To Be Done

**Author's Note:**

> Gapfiller for Ep. 211, _Judge, Jury, Executioner_. Daryl POV for the timeframe when Daryl takes Randall back to the shed, just prior to the walker attack on Dale.
> 
> Written for LJ's tamingthemuse community, for the prompt 'redemption'.
> 
> * * *

The kid ain't even capable of speech no more, just whimpers and mewls like a kitten when Daryl shoves him back into the shed. His bad leg crumples beneath him and he staggers, would fall if Daryl didn't haul him up by the scruff of the neck. He doesn't let go when he scans the interior, but it only takes a second to find a beam that'll do, another to truss the kid's hands above his head and tie him there.

He watches the kid's chest heaving for breath and tries to find some degree of pity inside himself for the boy, tries to see what Dale sees, feel what Andrea feels. But all he can see are the terrified faces of two girls he never knew, the face of a father left to bury his daughters in the cold ground. And it don't matter to him if Randall didn’t actually touch those girls, 'cause standing by and doing nothing to stop it ain't no different. 

In his mind the faces of those unknown girls morph into Andrea, Lori. Carol. He sees Randall's group of thirty stealing onto the farm under the cover of night, climbing easily over fences, slicing through the thin fabric of the tents and overpowering the people inside before they know what hit them. Sees Carol shoved into the dirt. Sees himself bleeding out, helpless to stop it.

Sees Randall, standing in the shadows by the trees, watching. 

He clenches his jaw and reaches for the lamp, forcibly pushes away the stricken faces of the women he knows and the girls he never will. The kerosene don't provide much light, but it glints on his blade when he draws it from the sheath at his waist. The light is good enough for him to do what has to be done.

The kid's found some words now, the whimpers interspersed with _please_ and _no_ , and Daryl wonders if the girls begged and pleaded, if their father tried to barter for their lives. He intends to show Randall the same mercy that the boy showed them.

He gags the kid with his bandana, but he removes the blindfold. A man oughta be able to look into the eyes of the man who's going to kill him. He oughta be able to see that he's been judged and found wanting, that the sins he committed are so monstrous that he ain't even fit to live in a godless world where the walking dead rule. 

Rick might waver, now that his boy's seen the harsh reality of this life. But Daryl knows what needs to be done to protect his little group of survivors. His family.

He can't never make up for abandoning the search for his brother. Can't never make up for not finding a little girl, lost and scared and alone in the woods. Can't never make that up to her mother. But he can make sure that nobody else ever gets the chance to hurt his people.


End file.
